Planning the Trip: What the Schedule Actually Looks Like

Much of what is written about the trip comes from businesses that sell it, which, as the Foreign Office notes, have a financial interest. This section is the counterweight: calm, sourced where it can be, and clear about what we could not find. It will help you ask the right questions of whoever is planning your visit.

Typical visit structures

Plans tend to take one of two shapes. In a single longer visit, the stages follow one another with short gaps, and you fly home when they are complete. In a two-visit plan, the first visit starts the work and a second visit, after a break, finishes it. Which is possible depends on the treatment: anything that needs the body to heal in between cannot be compressed into one stay.

Neither shape is better in itself. The question to ask is what happens in the gap, and whether you will be wearing temporary teeth, for how long, and who looks after them.

What happens on each stage

We describe stages rather than days, because we could not source how long each takes. For crowns and veneers the sequence is generally an assessment and plan, preparation of the teeth, a temporary restoration, laboratory-made final pieces, and a fitting with a check of the fit and bite. For implants, Guy’s and St Thomas’ describes assessment, an optional bone graft, the implant, and then the restoration. Our guide to dental implants explains why that sequence takes longer.

Why some treatments can’t be rushed

The same trust says implant treatment could take 6 to 12 months from start to finish. Implants need time to bond with the bone before they are used, and no itinerary can compress that. We look at what we could source in how long dental treatment in Turkey takes.

Flights and recovery

When it is sensible to fly home depends on the procedure, and the dentist who treated you should be the one to say. Ask before you book your return flight, not after. Flying after dental treatment covers pressure changes in a healing mouth, normal swelling and bruising, what to carry and what to do if something happens in transit.

What to agree before you fly

Settle the following in writing before you leave, while you still have the choice not to go. For what a written quote should itemise, see what dental treatment costs in Turkey.

• The named dentist, the teeth and the treatment for each, as set out in how to verify a dentist.
• The visits, the gap between them and how long any temporary teeth are meant to last.
• What the guarantee covers, and whether you must return to use it.
• Who will send your X-rays and treatment notes to your UK dentist.
• Flight tickets that can be changed, since treatment can overrun.
• Your travel insurance position, in writing.

On insurance and cover, the Foreign Office says planned treatment abroad is a commercial arrangement, and standard travel insurance does not normally cover you if you travel abroad for elective surgery, and may not cover costs from complications. That wording is general rather than dental, so ask your insurer directly. Its Turkey advice adds that the Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) and European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) are not valid in Turkey, and the NHS notes that you cannot get reimbursement for dental treatment.

Not every problem after dental work is an emergency, but some are. In the UK your first call is your own dentist.

Plan this before you book. NHS care and emergencies at home explains what the NHS will and will not do for work carried out abroad, our aftercare at home section covers the weeks after your return, and our editorial standards explain how we choose sources.